A reference list of common internet radio and broadcasting terms. Use it as a lookup when you’re reading help articles or talking to other broadcasters.
Ad-lib
Spontaneous, unscripted speech on air.
Aircheck
A recording of a broadcast, usually highlighting on-air talk segments. Hosts use airchecks as portfolio material; stations keep them for review and training.
Announcer
On-air talent. Other names: host, presenter, DJ, jock.
Back-sell
Telling listeners what songs were just played. Also called back-announcing or back-promoting.
Barter (contra deal)
Trading advertising space for goods or services instead of cash.
Brokered programming
Selling air time to a third party who produces and hosts the show. Common for religious programming, talk shows, and infomercial blocks.
Cans
Slang for headphones.
Cue
A signal, audio or visual, that prompts you to act. Examples: a cue light, a hand signal, or a cue tone in your audio chain.
Day parts
Time blocks the broadcast day is split into. A common breakdown: Morning Drive (6-10 am), Midday (10 am-2 pm), Afternoon Drive (3-7 pm), Evening (7-10 pm), Overnight (10 pm-6 am).
Dead air
Unplanned silence in your stream. Common causes: encoder dropouts, server issues, an absent host, or a misconfigured automation.
Dynamic range compression
Audio processing that reduces the difference between the quietest and loudest parts of a signal. It helps make audio sound consistent across different listening environments.
Encoder
Software or hardware that captures your audio, converts it to a streaming format (MP3, AAC), and sends it to your station’s input or hosted server. See Broadcasting Live.
Focus group
A small group of listeners (or potential listeners) interviewed about programming, songs, or shows. Used for audience research.
Format clock
A circle chart that maps out one hour of programming: songs, news, commercials, contests, talk segments. Also called a hot clock or broadcast clock.
Freeform radio
A format where the host has complete control over music and content choice. Common on college, community, and pirate stations.
Gain
Volume level. You’ll see “gain” labels on mixer channels and on encoder/processor inputs.
Graveyard slot
The lowest-listenership block of the day, traditionally midnight to 6 am.
HLS (HTTP Live Streaming)
A modern streaming protocol that delivers audio in small segments over standard HTTPS. Works well on mobile and varying connections. CloudRadio One uses HLS as its primary listener format. See What Is HLS Streaming?.
Hook
An instantly-identifiable part of a song, usually the chorus. Stations use hooks in promos and music tests.
Icecast
An open-source streaming server that delivers audio to listeners. Supports multiple mount points, UTF-8 metadata, and standard HTTP. CloudRadio One stations expose a legacy Icecast endpoint alongside HLS.
Imaging
Branded audio elements (sweepers, drop-ins, station IDs) used to position the station in the listener’s mind.
Log
A computer-generated record of what aired and when. Used for audit, compliance, and royalty reporting.
Mount point
In Icecast, the URL path where a stream is published or consumed (for example /studio or /live). One Icecast server can host multiple mount points.
Newscast
A scheduled news bulletin. May include interviews, soundbites, and vox pops.
On-air shift
The block of time a host or DJ is on air. Many stations use four-hour shifts.
Payola
The illegal practice of paying a station to play a song without disclosing the payment to listeners.
Post-production
Editing, mixing, processing, and assembling audio after the initial recording.
Promos
Short on-air messages promoting upcoming shows, segments, or events.
Radio archive
Recordings of past broadcasts, often published on the station website so listeners can catch up.
Ramp
The instrumental intro of a song before the vocals start. Hosts often “talk over the ramp” to fill space without stepping on the lyrics.
Reach
The number of unique listeners exposed to your station in a given period.
Relay
Re-transmitting another stream from your server. Useful for syndicated content. Most encoders and streaming servers support relay mode.
Remote broadcast
Broadcasting from a location other than your studio: a venue, an event, a guest’s home.
Rotation
A group of tracks the station plays repeatedly. Stations usually run multiple rotations (current hits, recurrents, gold) and weight them by importance. See Weighted Rotation.
Royalties
Fees paid to songwriters, composers, and publishers for public performance of their music. Collected by Performance Rights Organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SOCAN, PRS, etc.). See Music licensing.
Segue
A smooth transition between two songs. Tight segues fade out one track while the next is starting.
Shoutcast
A proprietary streaming server, similar in role to Icecast. CloudRadio supports both protocols on hosted radios. See Shoutcast/Icecast Hosting.
Sign-on / sign-off
The start and end of the broadcast day. 24/7 stations don’t have either.
Spot
A commercial or public-service message, typically 20-40 seconds.
Stinger
A short audio element (sound effect, music clip) used to punctuate or transition between segments.
Sweeper
A short branded imaging clip that “sweeps” between songs or segments. Often used for station IDs.
TLH (Total Listener Hours)
The total time listeners spent connected to your stream in a given period. If 100 listeners each listen for 10 hours, that’s 1000 TLH. See Statistics.
Voice tracking
Pre-recording host segments to be inserted between songs by automation, so the show sounds live without the host being live.